Aussie Apples marketing update

Boosting consumption starts with engaging the consumer. Hort Innovation’s Apple and Pear Marketing Manager Olivia Grey details key target audiences and the strategies underway to encourage them to buy more apples in 2019.

Hort Innovation marketing for Aussie Apples has focused on the Get Your Crunch on message.

Welcome to the Aussie Apples marketing update. Marketing activity is managed by Hort Innovation on behalf of the industry and is funded by the apple marketing levy.

Aussie Apples is now entering the final year of the three-year industry-aligned marketing strategy. The current strategy began in 2017 with the launch of the Get Your Crunch On campaign on television, digital media, including catch up TV, cinema and social media. In 2018, the campaign was amplified across additional mediums including radio, Spotify and YouTube. The latest Nielsen Homescan sales reports for 2018 show some positive purchasing trends for Aussie Apples, with the value of apple dollar sales growing 4.7 per cent compared to the prior year. The objective in 2019 is to continue this momentum.

The communications approach is threefold; increase awareness and remind consumers to ‘get their crunch on’ through mass awareness channels, inspire audiences to make apples the healthy snack choice in all situations to drive frequency of purchase, and ensure apples are top of mind when consumers are shopping and ‘on the go’. To ensure we used media to maximum advantage, we used high-impact media formats such as television and Out of Home (OOH), audio, and online video to achieve the highest engagement with our target demographic.

The target audience of the Aussie Apples marketing campaign are main grocery buyers aged 25-54, with a particular focus on families with children and young transitionals (Millennials). There is a large opportunity to move the needle with our Millennial audience, who are traditionally ‘light’ apple buyers compared to families, who tend to be ‘heavy’ apple buyers. While Millennials are often thought of as very young, they are now starting families of their own, and very much shape the behaviour of the overall grocery buying audience. As an audience on the go, and which values health, it’s important to reach Millennials throughout the day. Internet dominates this group’s media consumption and is the biggest area of difference from their older counterparts.

Television

Aussie Apples will be back on television again at the end of April 2019, with the Get Your Crunch On advertisement appearing on top rating shows across channels 7, 9 and 10. Television is a great way to achieve mass awareness; television viewing is alive and well, with our audiences still watching up to 16 hours per week.[1] Being both an audio and visual medium, it allows for easy comprehension of key messages. Aussie Apples will be on air for a total of 10 weeks up until September.

Digital

Our Millennial audience’s world is multi-screen, so we need to embrace this. Mobile is the first daily media touchpoint and digital helps us reach the audience at key contextual moments throughout the day. Kicking off in April, and running into September, the goal for the digital campaign is to raise awareness and consideration for apples, continue to reinforce our Crunch message and extend our television campaign through a multi-screen strategy.

In 2018, catch-up TV platforms –7Plus, 9Now, and Tenplay – provided the highest ‘viewability’ rates (rates at which advertisements are actually seen by viewers). These platforms reach across our entire target audience, but are especially important for reaching younger viewers who are moving away from real-time television. These premium environments are key to the strategy, as they provide great incremental reach and frequency to our core demographics. We will also use YouTube to drive awareness amongst our target Millennial demographic.

Another element of the digital campaign is the music streaming service Spotify. Spotify is used to reach our younger main grocery buyer target audience during commuting periods, mid-mornings and mid-afternoons, when they may be thinking about snacking. Recent changes to Spotify, introduced first in Australia, allow users to choose whether they want to hear, see or skip ads. The benefits of this are twofold; this means consumers only listen to ads that interest them, resulting in an engaged audience, and advertisers only pay for a completed view/listen, ensuring the most efficient buy. Spotify has also traditionally had a strong completion rate for Aussie Apples content, with the audio format completing at over 92 per cent in the last burst of activity.

Radio

Radio is considered an important part of our audience’s lives, with 40 per cent of them considering radio as an important part of their daily routine. It is also high-reaching; 63 per cent of grocery buyers report listening to radio on the way to the shops, and the majority (78 per cent) of listening is in the car.[2] With the distinctive ‘crunch’ sound a unique element of the creative, radio is an ideal place for Aussie Apples advertising.

Radio activity will run in parallel with television advertising from April to September, to extend coverage and drive frequency of the ‘crunch’ messaging. We have targeted key shopping times, with the campaign running in the morning and afternoons during the week to coincide with the commute to and from work and school pick up and drop off.

Alongside the radio advertisements, advertising will also play on podcasts, a growing medium for our target audience. These podcasts will utilise Nova’s drive talent and their syndications.

Out of Home

New to the marketing program in 2019 is Out of Home (OOH) activity, which aims to reach people outside their home, most commonly via advertisements on retail panels in shopping centres, on street furniture, or on public transport. Running from the end of April through to September, this activity acts as a reminder ahead of/in key shopping moments and has a proven ability to influence decisions at point of purchase. This activity also has high reach; 79 per cent of grocery buyers have seen OOH advertising in the last seven days.[3]

Aussie Apples advertisements will be placed on retail panels nationwide in close proximity to all major retail chains, including Aldi, and local supermarkets. These will remind consumers as they enter the supermarket to make sure they include Aussies Apples in their baskets.

Aussie Apples messaging will also be included at other key points where consumers may be looking for inspiration for making better snacking choices, such as gyms and street furniture, to hit people when they are ‘on the go’ and looking for a convenient, healthy snack.

Influencers

Another element of the 2019 marketing program is influencer activity. Word of mouth remains the most trusted source for purchase influence[4], so influencers on social media are an important part of a marketing campaign. The aim of this activity is to leverage the power of influencers to trigger consideration for apples within communities by illustrating how they fit into their healthy lifestyle. We will partner with these influencers to showcase the different ways they snack on apples throughout the day.

Other Activities

Aussie Apples will once again have a presence at the Sydney Royal Easter Show in the Woolworths Food Farm. The show attracted almost 800,000 people last year and is a great opportunity to get Aussie Apples in front of a large number of consumers.

Aussie Apples will also partner again with Woolworths for their Awesome Apple day throughout Woolworths stores nationally. Hort Innovation provided Woolworths with Aussie Apples slicers and contributed to the funding of t-shirts promoting Aussie Apples which will be sent to staff to use while offering consumers the opportunity to sample different varieties of apples at the start of the season.

Acknowledgement

These industry marketing initiatives are managed by Hort Innovation and are funded by the apple and pear marketing levy. This content has been prepared by the Hort Innovation apple and pear team. Growers are welcome to contact Apple and Pear Marketing Manager Olivia Grey (olivia.grey@horticulture.com.au or 02 8295 2387) with any questions relating to the marketing program.